Electric signal for railways



(MEL) 0. J. MEANS.

Electric Signal for Railways.

No. 234,315. Patented Nov. 9,1880.

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NITED STATES PATENT OFFICEa CHARLES J. MEANS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ELECTRIC SIGNA L FOR RAI LWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 234,315, dated November 9, 1880.

Application file To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES J. MEANS, of the city of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electric Signals for Railroads, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to that class of electric signals for railroadsin which the approach of a train to any point on the line, such as a crossing or station, is announced by the sound of an audible, or the display of a visible, signal at said point, caused by the action of the train on reaching a point at any desired distance from the signal, and which audible or visible signal is caused to cease to sound or to be displayed as soon as the train has passed the crossing orstation at which the signal is given, and has for its object the avoidance of the use of large battery-power in signals of this description.

To this end the invention consists, first, in the combination, with a main circuit of a battery, of a circuit-changing device which is operated by an electro-magnet in said main circuit, and is caused to move in one direction by the closing of said main circuit to establish a local circuit from the same battery through the electro-magnet operating the signal, and is moved in the other direction by the agency of the passing train after the same has passed the crossing or station; second,in an improved device for closing or breaking an electric circuit by a passing train; third, in an improved circuit-changing device.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan view of the circuit-changing device located at the crossing or station. Fig. 2 is an end view of the same. Fig. 3 is aview of the circuit-closer. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the circuit-changer and connections when used as a crossing-signal.

In these several figures the same letters refer to the same parts.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, A is an electromagnet, which is placed in the main circuit. 13 is a metallic lever attached to the armature of said magnet and provided with a contactspring, (J, the extremity of which makescontact with the metallic platea when the lever B is attracted by the closing of the circuit (1 February 11, 1880.

through the electro-magnet A. One pole of a battery is connected to the lever B, and the metallic plate a is connected to the other pole of the same battery by a local circuit passing through the magnet of the signal. Thus it will be seen that a local circuit which includes the signal-magnet is closed when the lever B is attracted by the electro-magnet A.

D is a lever, one extremity of which is near the track, so as to be depressed by the wheels of the passing train; and attached to the other extremity of this lever is an inclined projection, E, which, when the other end of the lever is depressed, comes in contact with the end of the lever B and moves the contactspring 0, attached thereto,away from the metallic plate a.

It will thus be seen that by means of the lever D the train, on passing the crossing or station, effects the movement of the circuitchanging lever and the consequent breaking of the local circuit, which includes the signalmagnet; but I do not confine myself to this device, as it is described merely for the purpose of showing a convenient means for accomplishing the desired result, and I can use instead any other suitable means by which the movement of the circuit-changing lever will be effected by the passing train.

When an electric circuit is broken or closed by mechanism actuated by a passing train the sudden movement of the mechanism produced by the passing train is of such short duration that when the current is broken by this sudden movement the interruption of the current does not continue for a time sufficiently long to permit an electro-magnet in the circuit to be discharged sufficiently to release its armature, and when the current is closed by the same action of the mechanism the current does not continue for a sufficiently long time to permit an electro-Inagnet to receive a charge sufficiently strong to attract its armature, unless a device is used which will prolong the interruption of the circuit or continue the current after the circuit breaking or closing mechanism has been actuated, and such devices have been made use of in connection with electric railroad-signals, and are therefore not claimed by me, broadly. I, however, accomplish this result in a manner which I believe to be novel; and thiseonsists in retarding the movement of the circuit-closing device by the inertia ol'a moving body set in motion by the sudden blow produced by the passing train on the mechanism actuating the circuit breaking or closing device. In Fig. .l is shown an ap' paratus which operates in this way. Itet'crring to the figure, I is a pivoted lever, one end of which projects toward one of the rails of the track. so as to be depressed by contact with the wheels of the train, and the otller end carries a projection, g, which, when the other end of the. lever is depressed. strikes against. the under side of one arm, 11, ot' a balanced weighted lever, II, which lever is attached at its center to a rotatingmetallic cylinderproperly supported. 'lhiseylimler has a segment, n, of its circumference constructed ot some insulating material, or cut away so as to leave a depressed space, and one end of an electric circuit is connected to this cylinder, and the other end of the circuit is connected to a metallic spring, K, the end of which normally rests upon the insulating or metallic surface ofthe cylinder, according as the circuit is to be broken or closed by the rotation of the cyl inder.

hen the end of the lever I is struck by the wheels of the passing train the arm I; ot' the balanced lever II is suddenly thrown up and the eylinderl is rotated to such an extent that the spring K leaves the insulating or metallic surface, and thus closes or breaks the circuit and traverses the circuit of the insulating or conducting segment; but as, owing to the suddenness ot' the blow, the cylinder is rotated very rapidly, this breaking or closing of the circuit is not of sutiicient duration to cfi'cct the proper charge or discharge of an electro-magnet in the circuit; but when the cylinder returns to its normal position its rotation is retarded by the inertia of the other end of the balanced lever, and consequently the breaking or closing ot'the circuit is prolonged to the desired extent.

Instead oflevers lland I in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, any suitable devices for actuating mechanism by the contact ot the wheels or any part of a passing train may be. used.

Referring to Fig. 4, which is a diagram showing the connections as a crossing-signal, L is the crossing. A, It, 0, I), and E are the respective parts ot the circuit-changing device before described. M is a battery. and N is a signal, either audible or visible, or both, of any suitable construction, to be operated by electromagnetism by a current from the battery M. P is the circuit-closer described, located at the point from which it is desired to announce a train.

The main circuit from the battery M includes wire 0, wire (I, magnet A, wire 0, the circuitcloser, and wiref, while the local or signal circuit includes wire a, lever B,contact-spring (J, metallic plate a, wire I, signal-magnet, and wire it. These circuits are normally open, but

when the main circuit is closed by a train going in the direction of the arrow, actuating the circuit-closer I, the magnet A attracts the lever 13, and the contact-spring 0, making connection with plate a, closes the local circuit, thereby causing the signal to sound or to be displayed. As the lever B, after having been lnoved by the magnet A, remains in the position to which it has been moved, though there is no current in the magnet A, the current; from the battery continues to atTect the signal-magnet. and it continues to act until the lever Bis restored to its original position. This may be done automatically by the wheels of the train striking the lever 1), upon the train reaching the crossing, by an electro-magnet operating on lever B in the opposite direction from magnet A, or in any other manner.

Any suitable means other than the one described for closing the circuit at P may be used without altering the spirit of my invention.

By this arrangementione battery does all the work, and as the circuit through the signal-magnet is so short as to have but little resistance, the full power of the battery isavailable to operate the said apparatus, thus obviatin g the necessity of the secondary batteries or clock-work used in other railroad-signals of this description.

In case it should be advantageous to have the main circuit cut out when thelocal circuit is closed, the wire (I would be connected to lever B through a metallic plate by the side of plate 11, upon which the spring-contact 0 would normally rest, but would break the connection when the lever B was attracted by the magnet A.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. In an electric signal for railroads, the combination, substantially as and for the purpose set forth, with a battery located near the signal at a crossing or station, of an electric circuit from said battery, through an electromagnet operating said signal, an electric circuit from the same battery, an electro-magnet in said circuit, and a circuit-changing device at the crossing or station operated by said magnet, and caused to move in one direction by the closing of the circuit through the magnet to establish the circuit through the magnet operatmg the signal and moved in the other direction by the agency of the passing train.

2. In a circuit closer or breaker for railroads, the combination, substantially as and for the purpose set forth, of the rotating cylinder I, acting to close or break an electric circuit, the oscillating balanced weighted leverH,a.t;tached to the cylinder 1, and retarding the rotation of the same by its inertia, and the pivoted lever F, or its equivalent, operating, when struck by a passing train, to throw up one end of thelever H.

3. In a circuitchanging device, the combitrain, and a battery near the signal and comnation, substantially as and for the purpose mon to both circuits. 10 set forth, With the magnet A, placed in an In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my electric circuit, of the lever B, caused to move hand in presence of the subscribing witnesses.

5 in one direction by the attraction of said mag- CHARLES J. MEANS.

net, to establish a circuit through an electroi Witnesses:

magnet operating a signal, and moved in the I H. S. ALLEN, other direction by the agency of the passing E. F. WEBSTER. 

